Monday, June 29
Michael Jackson was never like the Beatles, not a working class Liverpudlian who could troop on and on in the public eye, taking slings and arrows from the media, creating new music or playing old. In that way, he wasn't a lone-ranging Chuck Berry, either, or a Bruce Springsteen or a Bono. Certainly not a Frank Sinatra, except, of course, that he did it his way.

Michael Jackson, known as the King of Pop, was more like the King (of Rock), Elvis Presley. Both were fragile in their way, although Elvis tried to hide that behind a tough guy persona. In reality, he was considered something of a momma's boy long before he became the King.

Michael didn't try to be macho; in fact, he became an international sensation in part because of his androgynal manners and poses, which put him ahead of the curve culturally, and for his patently weird lifestyle, which also appealed to millions.

He wasn't like that at first, not as a member of the Jackson 5 during the 1970s, when he was more a cute Donny Osmond-like performer and baby brother to the other Jacksons.

Then, after an incredible string of hit solo albums, videos and dance creations over less than a decade, he sank further and further into his weirdness and rarely returned to the stage in a musical sense. Perhaps the mega-millions he made during the 1980s and '90s gave him the opportunity to become unhealthily reclusive and led to a weirdness meltdown.

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Elvis, who also surrounded himself with hangers-on who sheltered him from the world and sustained his king mentality, Michael Jackson fell into a lifestyle divorced from reality. And the same sort of drugs that helped send Elvis to an early Memphis grave, may have had a role in Michael's early demise.

It has often been said that, for an artist of any kind, the work itself is what allows them to continue living in a sane, productive fashion. When the work stops, or is neglected, everything comes crashing down.